Yucatan's Henequen

Cheering peons, in their dirty overalls, folded serapes over their shoulders, sailed their huge white sombreros into the air last week in Merida as President Lazaro Cardenas, taking another step in the Agrarian reforms under his Six-Year Plan, announced he would break up Yucatan's great henequen* estates, giving the land to the peasants.

Few days later, Cabino Vasquez, head of the Agrarian Department, arrived in the Yucatan peninsula with brigades of surveyors, engineers and technical assistants, ready to split the expropriated estates into small farms and ejidos, communal allotments.

* Sisal hemp, or henequen, is a fibrous plant used for twine, cordage, etc., second only to manila hemp in strength. Last year Yucatan's 250,000 acre henequen plantations produced one-third of the world's needs.

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